Invisible work, vulnerable bodies. On (new) social reproduction theory in the city

Achtung: Die Anmeldung zur Lehrveranstaltung gilt gleichzeitig als Anmeldung zur Leistungskontrolle!

Social reproduction refers to the various kinds of work – mental, manual, and emotional – necessary to sustain and reproduce life in all its forms, on a daily basis, and across generations. As the "fleshy, messy stuff of everyday life" (Katz 2001) opposite but necessary to the realm of production, social reproduction includes but is not limited to care work for children and the elderly, the interpersonal engagement in activist networks, or the emotional labour of sustaining private relationships. Drawing on feminist anthropology and literature from adjacent disciplines, we are going to explore ethnography as a method to detect this often invisibilized labour done by and for vulnerable bodies in the city. The urban context, made up of increasingly privatized spaces under surveillance, is particularly apt to critically observe the crisis that social reproduction has reportedly undergone in recent times. What inequalities are enforced when reproduction is (re-)privatized? Who is rendered invisible and vulnerable in the city, when social reproduction is pushed to the margins? This block course is going to tackle these questions both in theory and in practice. We are going to explore these issues by reading seminal works of (new) social reproduction theory (block 1) and by learning about how these questions can be approached in the urban context through ethnographic methods, not least those focussing on the body and the senses (block 2). In the second block, one session will focus on reading urban ethnographies from both Global South and North that centre social reproduction, and the other on learning about relevant urban ethnographic methods, so as to develop the skills to conduct our own mini-projects in the city. We will finally practice and apply these skills by exploring urban space together in a series of walking tours based on the participants' projects (block 3).